WARNING: SAD! Very emotional and sad...and violent...YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED, DON'T FLAME ME..................please...?

Okay...basically, Yukina is inside, Kuwabara is in a bed in the next room with Kane at his side, and everyone, Yusuke, Yukio, Gakilei, Kurama, Ai, Kisho, Hiei, Ryuuhayai, Hinegeshi, Botan, and Keiko are all outside...and Ryooki's there too ^_~

a/n: ~+~...~+~ means it's a scene flashback that's being told aloud.

~+~ means it's a pause where the person hearing it reacts.

+~+ is when the pause ends and the flashback-scene starts up again.

Chapter 9: The Terror of Ryooki's Past

"...Ryooki..." Kurama breathed slowly, his expression calm as he subconsciously stood to guard Botan. The bluette blinked slightly as Kisho, Ryuuhayai, Yusuke, and her husband tensed, but the others remained calm and let there muscles loose.

"Hey...you're the guy who saved me..." Gakilei half-smirked. Ryooki nodded his chin toward her, then allowed her nimble glare to shoot for his sibling.

"...I saved you and your little mate, and you STILL don't trust me, Yoko?" Ryooki sneered calmly.

"That was indeed an honorable feat, Ryooki...but it was near thirty years ago...how do I know that you are not corrupted?" Kurama countered with a solace smirk.

"Missy barked the same of me..." Ryooki glanced for the side, straight at Ai. The teenager countered his narrow glare with her very own, but the demon simply snorted a chuckle.

"She's just like you...good...the world is in need of more able women," he smirked. Gakilei and Ryuuhayai both grunted, knowing quite well they were Ai's equals. Ryooki pricked slightly at their jaggedly annoyed auras, and shifted to grace them each with narrow emerald glares and a calm smile.

"Ah...daughter of Hiei..." he smirked calmly to the demi-Dragon...on impulse Hiei grunted and opened a single eye, as if in preparation for anything...and on equal preparation did Kisho dive his footing to just in front of her.

"Kisho...calm down, son..." Kurama smiled softly to the bluette, Kisho eyeing him for a silent moment, then allowing his tensed muscles to loosen slightly. Ryuuhayai eyed the great beast with corrosive eyes.

"How do you know me?" she asked narrowly. "We've never met before."

"Well, if you don't count the overly BLATANT physical similarities..." Ryooki smirked. "...your scent is what convinced me that you were his daughter.

"Clever...and just what we need...yet another fox-wolf with a keen sense of smell..." she glared narrowly at Kisho...who she had yet to forgive for basking in her aroma. The bluette grinned sheepishly, then narrowed his expression yet again.

"Ah...and Mr. Defensive here is my nephew," Ryooki grinned, Kisho pricking. Without anyone noticing, Ryooki's eyes seemed to dull of focus while pinned to Kisho.

"W...w-what?!" Kisho stuttered through a gape. A gentle hand clasped to the boy's shoulder...Kisho instantly jerked behind...to lock in emerald eyes identical to his own. Kurama smiled reassuringly, and allowed loose a deep, rolling sigh as he trudged past his son.

"...Father...?" Ai asked suspiciously.

"You all stay here...I need to speak with my brother in private."

"Sure you don't want backup, Fox?" Yusuke asked flatly.

"Nay...Yusuke, try to comfort Yukina a bit...the rest of you, try not to follow after us."

"...but...Kurama..." Botan asked in a start. Kurama slowly cast her a loving smile and soft eyes.

"Please help Yusuke, love," he smiled, then shifted to walk in sync with the now retreating Ryooki.

"O...k..." she blinked slowly, then sighed. "...don't get in trouble, Kura..."

The two hybrids ventured beyond the shadows of the trees blocking off the Kuwabara property from the surrounding masses...they stalked slowly and silently, followed after by twin pink eyes, twin caramel, twin ruby, twin chocolate, and a single glare of emerald.

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"Why did you venture to the human world, Ryooki?" Kurama asked blandly once they had completely shed themselves of the Rekai Tenkai's presence *did I spell that right?!*

"I need your help, Brother..." the demonic of the two pulsed in a heavy, pained sigh as he allowed his tensed shoulders to sag.

"Why?"

A pause, a stifling silence that robbed Kurama of steady breaths as he awaited words to grace the immediate hearing.

"...I envy you, Yoko..." the older suddenly breathed, half to himself, half a slight attempt towards Kurama's hearing.

"Nani?"

"...your son...fifteen I'd say, is he not?"

A silence, Kurama blinking slightly in confusion as he tried to string the circumstances together. "...yes...he will be sixteen in three months..."

"...a strong one, that he is..." Ryooki, back turned all the while, moaned a rasp to himself.

"...yes, I am very proud of him, and of his sister..."

"...mm...she too is impressive..."

"Why do you envy me, Ryooki? And why did you slip into the human world?"

"...your son..."

"Kisho? What is his connection to any of this...?" Kurama narrowed his eyes slowly as he breathed a suspicious, protective tone.

"...nothing, really..." Ryooki sighed. "...it's just...my son resembled him."

Kurama instantly pricked. "You...you have a son?!"

"I had one...yes..."

"...what do you mean, 'had'?" Kurama blinked.

A long, choking silence. "Ryooki!"

~+~*Ryooki's POV flashback...he's narrating this for Kurama*~+~

It had been nearly thirty years since Grapko's demise, as you'd know, brother...I had found a mate, a beautiful Fox demonness by name of Krentia, strong and spirited...together, we had a son, an infant of silver, nearly blue hair, and of the fox-like emerald eyes...like your Kisho, he possessed the tail of the wolf, and not of the fox. Really, the only difference I saw between your Kisho and my Taro was the obvious gap in age, and that my son adorned wolf ears. Truly, they were identical in every other way.

He was so fragile, so little...the first infant I had held in ages...and he was my own. How I couldn't help but love him...in such a way you and I never were by our father.

Our mother, Jiaanti, lived with us, as to keep her safe and secure from our father...but the moment my mate was capable after Taro's birth, she sent me out for the hunt, to nearly instantly introduce him to meat.

So, I left, to stalk after prey while staying in a close range...when I heard Krentia's blood-curdling scream. I instantly dropped my hunt and sprinted for our home...and what I saw has been branded into my eyes forever.

~+~

"What is it you saw, Ryooki?" Kurama asked, though he nearly instantly regretted it.

Ryooki paused, a stabbing pain singeing in his heart...what he was forced to witness...had scarred him beyond healing...the scene was burned into his eyes, and the flaming, open wound could never be sealed.

+~+

The instant I returned to my cave...there they lay, golden flames licking to their motionless forms...Mother, her throat and wrists completely slashed and leaking of blood, her fragile eyes gaping in her frozen slumber.

~+~

Instantly Kurama pricked, sharps breaths quivering in the farthest depths of his esophagus. "...Mother..." he whispered rashly, his knees weakening under the intensity of the shock.

Ryooki solemnly bowed his head...and he forced himself to continue.

+~+

And my mate...my beloved Krentia...was sprawled to the ground...her heart ripped from her very chest, her last scream being what had called me to her side.

~+~*End flashback switch offs*~+~

Kurama stuttered uncontrollably. "He...he actually...!"

Ryooki pinched his eyes with forced strain, trying in all force to hold back tears. "...and then...there was my infant son...Taro..."

Kurama jerked to attention, unsure if he would be able to stomach what next Ryooki was to say. "Oh please, no..." he breathed softly. "...he was an infant...a child...!"

"Do you think Grapko cared?!" Ryooki hissed, his body pulsating in mad jerks of whimpers and stifled screams. "My little Taro, he wasn't even a week old! And he was Grapko's only direct grandson! Your children are different...their father's body was conceived of humans, so they are Grapko's indirect grandchildren...Taro was related directly!...but Grapko didn't care...he was insane, mad, a beast indescribable by words!!"

"...Ryooki..." Kurama stuttered softly. "...what...what happened...?..."

The hybrid growled and roared, holding back intense screams...and tears broke loose from the quivering brims of his naturally narrow eyes.

"Grapko had awaited for my return...he purposely kept Taro alive, for merely that instant of my presence..." he trailed off in mad sobs, collapsing to his knees. "...my little Taro...!"

"Ryooki! What did he do?!"

"Yoko we have to kill this beast!" Ryooki snarled violently, saliva to the corners of his tensely grit teeth as he growled darkly. "We have to ensure his soul is unreachable in the farthest pits of the fiery hells of neither human nor demonic punishment! He is unworthy of even the netherworld!"

"RYOOKI!" Kurama dashed to his fallen brother's side, and clenched to his shoulders. "What happened?! Tell me!"

"I came here, to the human world...because...because...I couldn't let what happened my family happen to yours!"

"What did he do?! What's happened?!"

Ryooki whimpered and cries pulsed his torn spirit...tears streaked salty down his cheeks as he was pried from his denial and into narrating the horror that was merely days past.

"...Yoko...he held Krentia's heart in his hand...and the instant I sprinted into the scene, he gnarled his fist about it, completely destroying the delicate muscle! And in his free held, dangled by the tail was my little Taro, crying and screaming for his passed mother!!"

"...Ryooki...!" Kurama tried in all effort to not collapse in his own waves of shock...he had to stay strong...for Ryooki.

"...his eyes...those horrifying golden eyes...!" the hysterical fox-wolf roared. "...they laughed at me...they were wild at me...! He gripped to Taro's tail..." cries and screams of insane sorrow and terror pulsed Ryooki's position. "...my little Taro!"

"Ryooki! Please! What did he do?!"

"He ripped Taro's tail straight from his fragile body!!"

Kurama pricked in total shock. "W-what?!?!"

"His spine was jerked loose, blood and flesh spraying every which way!"

Kurama stuttered insanely, unable to compute.

"No...no, no...!" he whispered in utter denial. "...it...it can't be...that's beyond barbaric! How can even Grapko stoop so low?! This cannot be!"

"My son's final scream will haunt me forever, Yoko!! You must help me! We MUST kill Grapko! By any and all means, we have to slay him for all eternity!!" Ryooki collapsed into mad sobs, unable to control them as he had before the rest of the Rekai Tenkai...the carefree, smug, ever-smirking Ryooki each had found themselves meeting that day had surrendered to inner plights and vexes...and seemed beyond restoration.

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Silence as twin sets of ruby watched the scene overhead within the bowels of a park tree...corrosive blood eyes gaping in shock, and locking for the partner set.

"Father...!" Ryuuhayai breathed heavily in fear.

"Ryuu...I'm afraid..." Hiei slowly cast his narrowly-terrified glare downwards for the crying hybrid. "...that this is merely the beginning...slaughter will haunt us all, a shroud of death is about to seal over us."

Ryuuhayai gaped in her overwhelmed state of emotion.

"Ryuu...you are young, and haven't tasted the flavor of nearly deprived life..." Hiei breathed softly.

"...father...?"

"...You must promise...to shed yourself of any connections to this matter..." he ordered blandly.

"I will do no such thing!" she snapped, and Hiei growled viciously.

"Ryuu! This is not your battle! Nor is it Kisho's, Ai's, Gakilei's, Yukio's, or Kane's! You all will remain in the human world where you face no danger!"

"No danger?! Father, Grapko's henchmen have slipped into the human world to slay the human loved ones of the Urimeshi Team! It's hardly safer!"

"YOU'VE NEVER DEALT WITH GRAPKO! HE NEARLY SLEW YOKO KURAMA!" Hiei roared in anger, snarling violently. Ryuuhayai gaped slightly, then tensed her expression to match his own.

"I refuse to allow you near such a beast! Let me help you! I've your abilities, I can be of use!"

"You will stay in the human world, you will protect your mother, and you will not disobey me, Ryuu..." his tone was dangerously low and threatening, brash and rolling smooth. Ryuuhayai glared ruby daggers straight at her father, and grunted his signature 'hn', blurring roughly against the air back for her cousin's property. Hiei sighed deeply, hurt at this having been the first time he demanded so strictly of her. He cast his corrosive glare downwards to his partner and the now calming Ryooki...

Slowly, Kurama eased his narrow emerald glare upwards straight into the masses of branch and leaf veiling his Dragon comrade. "What are we going to do, Hiei?"

"Hn...we're going to fight, Kitsune...and this time..." he blurred, jerking to a halt before his stern partner. "...we're going to leave Grapko dead."

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Don't be mad at me for killing Jiaanti, Krentia, and Taro! *whips out handy-dandy butterfly net as a HUGE crowd of pissed off Jiaanti-Krentia-Taro fans come sprinting out at her* EEP! *ducks behind Mirai Trunks, who gets trampled* er...right, anywho...don't worry...I got an idea to help out the situation...sides, you can't blame me! In class we had to watch The Mummy, and that scared the bejesus outta me cuz it was the first time I ever saw it and it was very violent lol the first scene was like traumatizing...it like scarred me lol...but! Don't be mad! I'll fix it! Please review, and please state your favorite parts *if you have any in this lol* Latr!!